How did I get into natural hoof care?

I got into natural hoof care thanks to Faith, my Arab/Trakehner mare. When she went lame as a 4 year old I started to question everything, and natural hoofcare came to the forefront of my attention. How had I gone YEARS of horse ownership without really knowing anything about their feet?? In the beginning, the more I asked questions the more confused I became. How could the vets and shoers say one thing, but the barefoot "crowd" say the total opposite?! How confusing is it when the lunatic fringe makes more sense than the infamous "they"!

A friend of mine recommended Pete Ramey's book, and things happened really quickly after that. I could not put that book down, it was like one of those page turner novels that I read into the night! I became obsessed. I joined every Yahoo group out there on barefoot horses, and I ordered more books and DVDs from people like Gene Ovnicek, KC La Pierre, and Jaime Jackson. I drove in a blinding rainstorm to Arizona to hear Pete Ramey speak, and Mario and I drove all the way home like houses on fire, talking excitedly about everything we had learned. The implications of this new found interest in horse feet was not even clear to me at the time. The fact that I would never again be able to look at a horse without my eyes immediately going to their hooves, for one.

Even more so, that I would eventually decide that this was something I wanted to pursue as a career! Somehow, I graduated from hiding out in the barn at night when I was certain no one was looking, tentatively rasping a few strokes on my own horses hooves, to enrolling in the AANHCP training program that took me to several states and many mentorships and clinics, and ultimately to being involved in the creation of a new program (the PHCP) and trimming professionally full time. I even applied to the American Hoof Association in 2008 and was approved as a certified trimmer. That was a huge accomplishment and I was at the time of approval one of less than 20 in the nation to achieve the honor! :-)

I strive to continue to learn every day from other trimmers, owners, vets and clinicians ... but especially from the HORSES.